The following podcast contains explicit language.

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Welcome to the Slate Audio Book Club's discussion of Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pinchin.

I'm Dan Cois, editor of the Slate Book Review, and I am here in Slate's New York recording studio.

Joining us from D.C. is Double X co-founder Hanna Rosen. Hello, Hannah.

Hi.

And with me here in New York is our special guest for this podcast, Brow Beets own Forrest Wickman. Hello, Forrest. Hello. So we, as always in the audiobook club, we recommend that you listen to us after you read the book, unless you love being spoiled for plot details, in which case, fine, listen. I mean, we want you to listen whenever. It doesn't actually matter matter to us not that any of us will be able to understand the plot of this book right and as

much as there are plot details that we understand well enough to spoil we will be maybe incorrectly

or inaccurately spoiling plot details not that pinching cares about the plot right right right

um so usually in these discussions i let's try to start off Not that Pinchin cares about the plot, but we'll save that for later. Yeah. Right.

So usually in these discussions, I will try to start off with like some kind of, you know, interesting, thematic question that makes me look smart and allows you guys to pick up the ball and start talking. But it seems like the easiest way to start this one is just getting this out of the way right away. Hannah, you hated this book. Oh, my God, you're setting me up for like all the pinch and hate mail straight from the start.

So they can stop listening. is just getting this out of the way right away. Hannah, you hated this book. Oh, my God, you're setting me up for, like, all the pinch and hate mail straight from the start.

So they can stop listening and send me an email. Fine, just do it. I really don't even think that this is a novel. I think it's like an idea, and you're forced to live inside this idea. And if you don't actually happen to belong to the church, then you have no idea what's going on and it's slightly boring.

And frankly, like the idea drive. And if you don't actually happen to belong to the church, then you have no idea what's going on and it's slightly boring.

And frankly, like the idea driving the book about technology not being neutral and somehow connected to terror seems like juvenile and uninteresting.

I am open to the idea that, you know, technology corrupts us in many, many ways.

And I've read lots of novels and we can talk about them later, which I think do a much more subtle job of it. But that seems to me like an infantile conspiracy theory idea. So that's the first problem is the idea doesn't interest me. So I'm already starting out in the wrong foot. And then the execution, I thought was terrible. Like the writing is bad. There's no like interesting characters in this book. The plot, he's sort of indifferent to it. And the main character, Maxine, seems indifferent to the

investigation. I have no idea why she's doing it or why she trips from one place to the other.

And I get that that's supposed to be in our face. Like, you know, Pynchon does these coincidences,

which couldn't possibly happen. And these names we are supposed to understand are not true. But they're not exactly funny. So I'm not really sure what's supposed to turn me on in this book. Hara Forrest and I just like both fell over. We're on the ground. We're recording from the ground. Right. Right. It's New York studio. Why did you set me? Like, you let me go out. You let me do the whole rant.

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